History Warhammer40000 / W40kTropesQToZ

* QuirkyMinibossSquad -- HQ characters' retinues, of all stripes.
* TheQuisling -- Several human worlds near the Tau Empire have been assimilated into the Empire, some more willingly than others.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits -- Imperial penal legions, entire armies of convicts sentenced to death at the hands of the enemy; [[RedemptionEqualsDeath in death they may be forgiven for their crimes.]] The best known unit is Colonel Schaeffer's "[[TheLastChancers Last Chancers]]", inspired by every war-movie RagtagBunchOfMisfits ever.
* RammingAlwaysWorks -- Killboy of ''Deff Skwadron'', whose favorite move is to crash his plane into the enemy's plane.
* RandomNumberGod -- A number of bizarre good-luck superstitions have arisen, such as never calling missile launchers by their proper name (it has the word "miss" in it), the idea that painted models are luckier than unpainted models, the usage of blue dice for important rolls and the practice of occasionally muttering prayers to the Emperor. Never taken seriously, but often endearing.
* RatedMForManly -- Part of the {{Tagline}} is "There is only war.", after all.
* RazorFloss -- Many Eldar weapons.
* RealityWarper -- C'tan, distinct from the setting's other gods in that they are ''literal'' {{Physical God}}s, immensely powerful in the material world rather than being warp entities. The more powerful psykers can also break the setting's (already tenuous) grip on physics.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld -- Most wealthy Imperials, via juvenat technology.

* RecycledInSpace -- Began as a RecycledInSpace version of ''{{Warhammer}}'', which predated it by four years, but has over time diverged from it. Now contains a RecycledInSpace of nearly every fantasy and SF trope imaginable, turned DarkerAndEdgier to a ridiculous degree and armed to the teeth.
* RedEyesTakeWarning -- Orks' eye colour tends to be red, with some slight variations. Things like bionic eyes and Space Marine helmets can also have red lenses, and the entire Salamanders chapter has red eyes due to an interaction between their geneseed and the high radiation of their homeworld.

* TheRedPlanet -- Home to the [[CargoCult Adeptus Mechanicus]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath -- One of the fundamental concepts behind the ChurchMilitant's idea of "[[FateWorseThanDeath penance]]."
* {{Redshirt}} -- Though not specifically called out as such, this tends to emerge from the gameplay mechanics. The wound allocation rules (barring special exceptions) allow the player who controls the unit being hit to designate which models in the unit fall in combat when the unit is attacked. Inevitably, it will be the models without special options, wargear, or abilities, who [[TakingTheBullet Take The Wound]] instead of the more important ones.
* RedshirtArmy -- The Imperial Guardsmen are ordinary humans in a world filled with genetically engineered {{Super Soldier}}s in both religious-fanatic and daemon-corrupted flavours, [[RobotWar unstoppable death robots]], and aliens with horribly lethal weapons and/or terrifying PsychicPowers. They are surprisingly GenreSavvy about this, meaning that infantry have crap morale because they know exactly how expendable they are. Of course, [[YouHaveFailedMe Commissars]] are there to solve that little problem.

* RefugeInAudacity -- [=40K=] basically ''runs'' off this and RuleOfCool.
* RefugeInCool -- RuleOfCool in the sense of "governed by cool with an Iron PowerFist."
* ReignOfTerror -- Began with the Emperor's unification of Terra and has since settled into a permanent state of affairs.
* ReligionIsMagic -- Used to its fullest by both the Imperium and Chaos, especially the Sisters of Battle, who can literally ''stop bullets'' with their faith.
* ReligionOfEvil -- Chaos cults, and the Word Bearers' claim to fame. Not that the "[[CorruptChurch good]]" religions are much better.
* RetCon -- The Squats, Zoats and the fifth Chaos God, Malal, were removed from the game background - the Squats because they weren't sure what to do with them, Malal because they weren't quite sure who owned the copyright. Other forces changed drastically, for example, the Tyranids turning from curiosity bugs into a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts galaxy-eating horror]], and the C'tan becoming the Necrons' star gods.

* TheRightHandOfDoom -- All those {{Power Fist}}s give this effect, often occurs in the mutations of daemon princes but special mention must go to the Crimson Fists who all paint just one of their hands so that it at least looks a little bit more prominent.

* RightHandVersusLeftHand -- Common in the Imperium, ''standard operating procedure'' in the Inquisition.

** This is also common among the forces of Chaos, who routinely act at cross-purposes to one another even when they're ostensibly working towards the same goal -- to say nothing of when they [[EnemyCivilWar aren't]].
* RobeAndWizardHat -- Eldar Farseers, some Chaos sorcerers.
* RoboCam -- The standard depiction of space marine battle helm readouts. [[UnusualUserInterface Bonus points for directly scrolling across the retina.]]
* RobotWar -- One of them was partly the reason for the end of the Dark Age of Technology. Nowadays, they happen wherever the Necrons show up.
* {{Roboteching}} -- Tau Smart Missile systems.
* RockBeatsLaser -- A setting of world-splitting superweapons, ludicrously powerful weaponry and interstellar empires, and the standard tactic of most factions is to charge screaming at their foes waving a sharp thing. And it ''works''.

* RodentsOfUnusualSize -- They live in the underhives.
* {{Room 101}} -- Commorragh, the home of the Dark Eldar, is implied to be a ''City'' 101.
* RoomFullOfCrazy -- Psykers are prone to this.

* RubberForeheadAliens -- Eldar resemble nothing so much as tall, thin humans with pointy ears, Tau stocky grey humans with funny toes and faces. Justified, or at least Lampshaded, as of Xenology.
* RuleThirtyFour -- Sexy Tyranids, loli Daemonettes, Cultist-chan, the Ronery Wych, Faptau...among others. ''Beware'' [[NightmareFuel some of the stuff]] that comes out of [[ImageBoards /tg/]].

* RuleOfFunny -- The Orks. Seriously, just read their [[BloodyHilarious Codex]] and you'll understand.
* RuleOfPerception -- According to [=40k=]'s What You See Is What You Get rules, if a particular upgrade or piece of wargear isn't somehow visible on a model, the model can't claim to have it. This encourages players to come up with interesting conversions[[hottip:*:(pronounced "spend more money on toys")]] to represent these upgrades, particularly in the case of things like veteran skills and other non-physical traits.

* SameCharacterButDifferent -- The ''White Dwarf'' cut-out boardgame based on the fight on Horus' Battlebarge featured two Greater Daemons on Horus' side, named Doombreed and "Kraxnar." ''Years'' later when Codex: Chaos came out, this was referenced, but poor never-described-at-all Kraxnar had been ousted by the rather less goofily-named N'Kari.
* SandWorm -- Raveners, the Red Terror, Trygons and Mawlocs, in that order from least to most matching.
* SapientShip -- The [[OurElvesAreBetter Eldar]] ships combine elements of this and the [[AfterlifeExpress ghost ship]], with the implanted spirits of the dead giving the ship its own personality.
* ScaleOfScientificSins -- Unsurprisingly, pings on all 7 sins.
* ScaryBlackMan -- The Salamanders are an entire chapter of this, and they're one of the nicer chapters of Space Marines.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens -- ''All'' the factions:

* SceneryGorn -- About half of the art. A fair proportion of the other half is just regular {{Gorn}}.
* SchizoTech -- Planets in the Imperium of Man range from Stone Age-level Feral Worlds to hyper-tech Forge Worlds. Even within a given world, examples of SchizoTech often abound: it's not uncommon for an adept to ride a flying bus into work and then spend the day copying numbers onto rolls of parchment with a quill. And of course, "[[MemeticMutation DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!!]]"
* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder -- Orks.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale -- Has a love-hate relationship with this one. At times, distances, timescales and the number of soldiers needed to launch a sector-spanning crusade are handled "realistically", but just as often a few hundred Space Marines defend - or ''purge'' - an ''entire world''. Of course, they are [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]]...)

* ScreamingWarrior -- Eldar Howling Banshees, who - thanks to a psychosonic amplifier in their masks - can actually ''shut down someone's nervous system'' by screaming at him.

* ScryVsScry -- Primarily between Eldar farseers and Tzeentchian sorcerers; human and even Ork soothsayers sometimes try this as well, but are generally far less successful at it.
* SealedArmyInACan -- Subverted with the Necrons, in that they can't be controlled. Overlaps with SealedEvilInACan.
* SealedEvilInACan -- Many, many examples.

* SenseFreak -- Followers of Slaanesh. Dark Eldar as well.
* SenselessSacrifice -- There are many {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in [=40K=], "But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed..."

* SeparateButIdentical -- All races suffer really badly from this, although it's being gradually fixed with different Craftworlds, bio-augmentation, regimental doctrines, etc.
* SeriousBusiness -- The FanDumb, of course, [[CrackIsCheaper but considering what this game costs]], you can kinda see their perspective.
* SexyJester -- Eldar Harlequins, though most of their opponents are too busy screaming in pain and terror to notice.
* ShadowDictator -- The God-Emperor of Mankind. The ''official'' story is that he was mortally wounded in a duel with Horus and has been hooked up to the Golden Throne and [[NotQuiteDead preserved in a state between life and death]] ever since, but sometimes it's alluded that he might be, in fact, long dead. Of course, those making said statements generally happen to be enemies of the Imperium, so it's impossible to know whether or not they're true.

* SharedUniverse -- Particularly in the novels; most fans regard anything written by some authors, especially C.S. Goto, as automatically non-canon.

* ShinyLookingSpaceships -- Eldar and Tau, mostly.
* ShockAndAwe -- Necron ranged weapons typically fire bolts of green lightning that [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel strip away the target's flesh one molecular layer at a time]]. A great many psychic powers also involve using bolts of lightning to fry people.
* ShootTheDog -- Happens very, very often in the Imperium. One of a commissar's duties is to maintain unit cohesion and discipline - by execution, if necessary. Discovered psykers are usually killed to stop them getting daemon-possessed and destroying worlds, fed to the Astronomicon to preserve it and the Emperor, or put through brutal conditioning to serve the Imperium as "sanctioned" psykers. And, if that weren't bad enough, in extreme catastrophes ''planets'' are subjected to Exterminatus in order to prevent the taint from spreading and put the inhabitants out of their misery. To highlight how monumentally fucked up this galaxy is, people are actually ''awarded medals'' for such acts.
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon -- Shamelessly prevalent in the tabletop game, even the artillery. The worst offender is the Imperial Guard Basilisk, whose range is both unnecessarily long for the tabletop game - twenty ''feet'', several times the length of the average game table - while also far, far too short for an artillery piece of that size.

* ShouldersOfDoom -- If you look at the GamesWorkshop site, "Shoulder Pads" is an entire category of modeling bits, along with scenery and weapons.
* ShoutOut -- Tonnes, some subtle, some obvious.

* ShroudedInMyth -- Space Marines are seen as legends by most of the Imperium. An average Imperial citizen will occasionally get to see how much of the legends are true; unfortunately, this is generally in a Marine-worthy combat situation, meaning the citizen's life expectancy can probably be measured in minutes at most.
** One comic story describes an Ork invasion of a medieval-level Imperial world and a Black Templar counterattack, from the perspective of one of the world's peasants. At the end, after the Orks are driven off, the peasant hopes that they never come back again -- not because he's scared of the Orks, but because he's scared of the ''Space Marines''.
* ShrugOfGod -- Games Workshop has deliberately left everything regarding the two "missing" Primarchs open for fan speculation. Ditto for other major characters, like Commander Farsight.
* SicklyGreenGlow -- Necrons in general and gauss weapons in particular.
* SightedGunsAreLowTech -- One of the few science fiction works to avert this trope.
* SigilSpam -- Most Imperial organisations. Chaos Marines are often depicted in this fashion also.
* SingleBiomePlanet -- Used and averted equally often.
* SinisterScythe -- Trademark of Nurgle followers and the [[GrimReaper Nightbringer]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism -- Take a wild guess. This is a universe where extreme prejudice and xenophobia against anyone ''remotely'' different -- psykers, mutants, etc. -- is truly the best option, since anything else will, in a best case secenario, get you possessed by demons.

* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness -- Looked at from an out-of-universe perspective 40K has the tongue so firmly planted in cheek its punching through, in-universe it is so serious and depressing its rather surprising you have productive people at all considering how depressing it must be to be in charge of anything in 40k.

* SlidingScaleOfTurnRealism -- Turn by Turn.
* TheSlowWalk -- Necrons are masters of this, as is any unit with the Slow and Purposeful rule (e.g. Obliterators, Meganobz, Thousand Sons). There is also a drawing in the 5th edition rulebook of several Imperial heroes performing a Slow Walk.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple -- A dearth of female special characters usable in the game proper, although the fluff doesn't suffer from this so badly.

* SomeCallMeTim -- Some call me Commander Farsight (Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr or O'Shovah for short) . Standard practice with Tau.

* SoulCuttingBlade -- Force weapons.

* {{Sourcebook}} -- [[AllThereInTheManual By the bucketload]].
* SoundOff -- Imperial battle hymns, Ork war chants.
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil -- It begins with the Tau (for whom peace talks are - [[GunboatDiplomacy usually]] - the first resort), then the Eldar (who will not normally screw you over [[CombatPragmatist unless the lives of their own species are at stake]]), then the Imperium (which has to be this brutal so that mankind as a whole can survive), Orks ([[BloodKnight WAAAGH!]]), then Tyranids (driven by hunger rather than any genuine malice), then Chaos (let's convert the materium into more warp!), Necrons (who hated the universe at large even before they were made the slaves of maniacal star-gods who want to farm every sentient species in the galaxy), and Dark Eldar (just pure, unrepentant evil, even by this settings standards).

* SpaceAmish -- The Imperium actually has "medieval worlds" and "feral worlds." The Eldar have exodites, and the Orks have feral tribes and the Snakebite clan.
* SpaceIsAnOcean -- Complete with starship-sized kraken and moon-sized leviathans. Also see the ''BattlefleetGothic'' page.
* SpaceMarine -- Imperial Guard Stormtroopers, Tau Fire Warriors, Eldar Aspect Warriors, just about any Necron, but especially...
** SuperSoldier -- ...The guys ''called'' Space Marines.
* SpaceOpera -- Emphasis on the epic heroes, villains, and battles - not so much on the love stories.
* SpacePirates -- Eldar, Dark Eldar and sometimes Orks, Chaos and Humans.

* SpaceRomans -- The Imperium, right down to the Latin. Especially the Ultramarines.
* TheSpartanWay -- Taken to utterly ridiculous extremes by the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. Just ''look'' at the page quote.
* SphereOfDestruction -- Eldar wraithcannons and D-cannons and Imperial vortex weapons work this way, neatly removing perfect spheres of matter and sending them ''straight to hell''.
* SpiderTank -- Chaos, specifically Defilers and Brass Scorpions. Necron Tomb Stalkers may also qualify.
* SpikesOfVillainy -- Chaos all the way. Dark Eldar go for more of a bladed look, while Orks will mix spikes with blades and add anything else brutal you can think of.
* SplitPersonality -- Eldar on the path of the warrior deliberately cultivate a separate "warrior" personality so that their "true" selves can remain untainted by the violent and murderous things they have done. Those who screw up and [[ShapeshifterModeLock lose the ability to switch back]] become Exarchs.
* SpyCatsuit -- Several Eldar have one, but it's pretty much standard issue for the Officio Assassinorum agents of the Imperium. Some employ chamaeleonic mimicry abilities, others have no special reason apart from being FetishFuel. In one of the newer novels, this tendency is repeatedly {{lampshaded}} when several characters can't keep their eyes from the girl-assassin brought up by a [[ChainsawGood rather]] [[KillItWithFire puritanical]] [[SexIsEvil sect]] who would most likely kill them if she had any idea ''why'' they looked at her like that.
* SquishyWizard -- Played straight by most races' psykers, but subverted by some being real hardcases, such as Tyranid Hive Tyrants (but not Zoanthropes), Space Marine Librarians, Grey Knights and Chaos Daemons. Eldar Farseers are actually ''tougher'' than most other Eldar, due to slowly turning into crystal.
* StabTheSky -- Common pose of characters in artwork; not so much in actual tabletop models these days, unless you pose them that way yourself. Older models ''did'' tend to have their swords held high over their heads, due to pewter- and plastic-casting limitations of the time.
* StandardSciFiArmy -- Considering its focus on war, every single type of unit conceivable has been used in the games.

* StandardSciFiHistory -- The Imperium and Eldar follow the trope closely. They explored, found aliens, built great empires, and are now falling.
* StandardSciFiSetting -- Only painted black and covered in skulls.
* StandardTimeUnits -- The Imperium officially runs on Terran years, and presumably Terran days onboard starships.

* StanleySteamerSpaceship -- And Stanley Steamer ''Tanks''.

* StateSec -- The Imperium's secret police are called the ''Inquisition''. It suits them.
* StatusQuoIsGod -- The huge fate-of-the-galaxy-depends-on-the-outcome-of-this summer global campaigns never seem to change anything. However, 5th Edition advances the plot a couple of hundred years, and the Imperium, though it hasn't collapsed yet, is apparently more screwed than ever before.

* StopWorshippingMe -- The God Emperor of Mankind when he was alive.
* StoutStrength -- Generally anything associated with Nurgle gets this treatment. Especially the daemonic servants who the fatter they are, the more powerful they are.
* StrawHypocrite -- The Ultramarines, most outspoken supporters of the Codex Astartes, rule over an entire sector despite the Codex explicitly prohibiting Space Marines from ruling more than one homeworld (barring short periods of emergency government). Mind you, they have a HundredPercentAdorationRating and their realm is unprecedentedly well organised, so they must be doing something right.

* StrippedToTheBone -- Necrons make wide use of gauss-flayer weapons, which strip the target away layer by molecule-thick layer - although most have so much power that even a single shot usually ends up vaporising the victim whole.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe -- Depending on the writer, the Guard can be filled with competent men and women able to pull their weight against the superhuman enemies of the Imperium or full of redshirts only good for cannon fodder and buying time for the tanks or Space Marines.

* SubspaceAnsible -- Sending telepathic messages... through ''hell''...
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien -- C'tan/Necrons, and to a lesser extent the Eldar.
* SummonMagic -- Summoning daemons.
* SuperpowerMeltdown -- Happens to psykers. A lot.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics -- The Primarchs and the Space Marines. Also Orks.
* SuperRegistrationAct -- An ''extremely'' euphemistic way of describing the treatment of psykers who aren't sacrificed to the Astronomican.
* SuperpoweredMooks -- Psykers and those "blessed" by the Chaos gods.
* SuperweaponSurprise -- Eldar Maiden worlds and Imperial medieval worlds - Do not touch without a force big enough to repel the reinforcements.
* SurvivalMantra -- The many, ''many'' little prayers and litanies recited on a regular basis by the Imperials. Often have [[MadnessMantra Chaotic counterparts]].
* SwallowedWhole -- Stay away from Mawlocs. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Because you'll still be alive when you get digested]].
* SwissArmyWeapon -- Obliterators again.
* SwordAndGun -- Generally favoured by every somewhat-sentient race in the game for close-quarters combat troops.
* {{Synchronisation}} -- Titans and their Princeps, some ships and their captains.

* TactfulTranslation -- This happened to ''White Dwarf's'' battle reports. At one point they were blow-by-blow accounts, until a farcical ''Titan Legions'' battle report where one side with a Mega-Gargant suffered a ridiculously one-sided defeat against a Space Marine army with no Imperator Titan. Presumably the worry was that they'd made the supplement look bad, so battle reports were changed to a story-like format, presumably for easier "equalising."
* {{Tagline}} -- "There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only WAR!" "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war!"
* TakeCover -- Terrain on the table is not just for decoration, as hiding behind a bush can protect you from even anti-tank weaponry (though not flamethrowers).

* TakingYouWithMe -- Once again, taken to extremes; a good example would be the Eversor Assassin. When you kill him, his ''blood explodes'' with tank-destroying force. All vehicles in the game have a chance of exploding, to the misfortune of everyone around, when destroyed.

* TalkToTheFist -- Standard Imperium policy with talkative xenos filth.

* TankGoodness -- Naturally, taken UpToEleven. Every race has its armoured death machines, but honestly the Imperial Guard Armoured Companies are the ''kings'' of this trope. '''TANKS FOR THE TANK GOD, TREADS FOR THE TREAD THRONE!'''

* TarotMotifs -- The Emperor's Tarot. Used seriously for divinition -- and it works -- and as playing cards.

* {{Technopath}} -- Eldar are and know it, Ork Meks are but don't, and the Adeptus Mechanicus ''think'' they are.

* TechnoWizard -- The Adeptus Mechanicus takes the "wizard" part seriously, to boot.
* TeleFrag -- The Ork Shokk Attak Gun - see {{BFG}}.

* TelepathicSpacemen -- Imperial Astropaths.
* TeleportersAndTransporters -- The Imperium has a few of these, though they have the kind of reliability you'd expect when maintenance consists of a lot of chanting and application of sacred oil (and when the actual function involves ''firing people through hell''). The Ork mek Orkimedes also created a "tellyporta" device for the Battle of Armageddon; in fact, teleporters are one of the few pieces of technology that Orks can build better and more reliably than humans, much to the tech-priests' chagrin.

* TeleportInterdiction -- There are teleport jammers that can disrupt, stop or relocate things that are teleporting down into combat.
* TempleOfDoom -- Necron tombs form the majority, although there are (probably) other cases.

* TemporalParadox -- Though TimeTravel is rare in the 40K universe, the Warp does strange things sometimes. Take, for example, the waaagh of one Ork Warboss traveling back through time via warp-storm, meeting up with his army's past self, then ''attacking it so he could have two copies of his favorite gun.'' The remaining Orks were so confused by the result that the waaagh was called off.
* ThatsNoMoon -- Necron tomb-complexes tend to look relatively small and innocuous at first...then they're revealed to be much, ''much'' bigger, and often occupied by their builders.
* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality -- Why do things keep getting worse and the factions less sympathetic? Inertia and because the writers say so.
* ThereAreNoTherapists -- Because those who need them are ''weak'', and thereby not worth the resources and time to fix it. [[WeHaveReserves There are many to take their place, anyway.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill -- Standard operating procedure for the Imperium. Justified in that there are some things you'll want to kill ''really quickly'' in this universe, and some things you want to stay ''very'' dead.

* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow -- Be strong in your ignorance!

* ThisIsADrill -- Corvus assault pods for Titans, the bizarre-yet-cool mole mortar.
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil -- Chaos tends to have this effect on the mind - goes double for psykers. SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK!
* ThrowTheDogABone -- The 5th edition Imperial Guard codex does this for Imperial Guard players.

* ThrowThePin -- Ork Stikkbommaz are noted for being above average intelligence for Orks, as they know that stikkbommz are the bit you throw, not the pin...
* TimeAbyss -- Most Eldar, but a few ancient Marines and Chaos Marines cross into this trope as well. The Dreadnoughts are prominent even among the Marines: the oldest one of them has seen the Emperor and fought by his side in life, which is almost 11 000 years from current in-universe time. Truth be told, though, Necrons own this. The C'tan are outright stated to be the oldest living things in the universe, and the actual Necron race is ancient on par with the Old Ones themselves. The Necrons and C'Tan are actually old enough that they have to periodically wake up and move their tomb worlds when they stars they orbit die.
* TinTyrant -- Pretty much every commander wears a high tech suit of armor. Artwork of Khorne and the Emperor also has them fall under this.
* TookALevelInBadass -- The Imperial Guard went from the whipping boys of the entire setting to the utterly terrifying gods of mechanised combat in the space of one codex.
* TomeOfEldritchLore -- The Black Library is an entire extradimensional stronghold full of these. See also the Book of Lorgar.
* TortureTechnician -- Dark Eldar Haemonculi, quite a lot of Inquisitors. Most Ork painboyz have got the Torture part down, but the Technician (keeping him alive) part is usually ignored.
* TouchedByVorlons -- Not always a good thing...in fact, almost ''never'' a good thing. Partly because you're liable to get nailed to a stick and purged with flame if you get touched by ''any'' alien...or listen to them...or look at them...or live in the same general area as someone who looked at them...and Emperor help you if someone on your planet was engaged in a Chaos Cult.
* TouchOfDeath -- Mainly used by C'tan and daemons, but the odd high-power psyker has been known to do this.
* TournamentPlay -- The kind of competition at a 40k Grand Tournament is enough to give the casual player horrible nightmares. Quite appropriate for the setting.
* TrainingFromHell -- Pretty much the only training there is. The only way they can top it is by having people trained ''[[BeyondTheImpossible inside'' the universe's hell]].
* TranquilFury -- Usually this or an UnstoppableRage.

* TranslationConvention -- "Low Gothic", the common language of the Imperium, is presented as English, while "High Gothic" is rendered in [[CanisLatinicus Pseudo-Latin]]. Ork language is generally shown as English with a FunetikAksent, and is sometimes explicitly said to be pidgin Low Gothic. Depending on the context, nonhuman languages are either translated as English, or shown to need interpreters.
* TreacheryCoverUp -- Most of the Imperium's citizenry don't know anything about the Horus Heresy, including the fact that fully half of the Space Marine Legions rebelled against the Emperor.
* TronLines -- Necron technology.
* {{Trope 2000}} -- ...wait, why settle for two when you can have 40?
* {{Troperrific}} -- See above. This is one of the few works pages to have folders.
* {{Tsundere}} -- 1d4 chan's interpretation of Commander Shadowsun(dere), a female Tau general. Pretty much completely unsupported by canon, but funny nonetheless.

* TunnelKing -- The Tyranids have tunneling creatures with the size and power of tanks.

* {{Ubermensch}} -- The Emperor himself.
* UglyGuyHotWife -- Nurgle and Isha.
* UltimateEvil -- The Emperor and the Chaos Gods all get this treatment to varying degrees.
* UnholyNuke -- The game is full of these. Any time Chaos is involved, expect Unholy Nukes to be flying thick and fast.
* TheUnmasquedWorld -- The realisation that daemons actually existed was the death knell for Imperial Truth, and helped kick-start the Horus Heresy.
* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior -- All Imperial ships. Also covered in religious iconography and kilometres-high skulls-and-eagles gold bling.
* {{Unobtainium}} -- Plenty of it; Wraithbone, Necrodermis and Adamantine are the widest used examples.
* UnpredictableResults -- Anything connected to the Warp or Ork technology. Represented ingame by psykers suffering "perils of the warp" attacks and more esoteric Orky wargear having its own tables of random effects. Ork ''psykers'' are beyond random, rolling just to see what completely-unpredictable power they ''get''...every turn.

* TheUnpronounceable -- Tau names can get hard to pronounce - but ask any BattlefleetGothic player about Tau ''ship'' names...
* UnusualUserInterface -- A lot of Eldar and Imperial gear.
* UnstoppableRage -- Black Templars. BloodAngels. Khorne Berserkers. Even Eldar, when the Avatar is nearby.

* UpToEleven -- '''''Everything.''''' And often to twelve, thirteen and [[strike:several]] [[strike:over nine]] forty thousand.
* UrbanSegregation -- Taken to utter extremes with hive cities.
* UsedFuture -- Again, taken to extremes. Almost all of the current technology and equipment being used by the Imperium is ''thousands of years old'', and much of it they can't even make any more.

* UselessUsefulSpell -- Blast weapons can sometimes fall into this. Many are extremely powerful (particularly the massive vehicle-mounted Ordnance weapons), but their tendency to scatter off-target makes them unreliable, particularly if your troops have low Ballistic Skill (which makes the blast scatter farther) or you just tend to roll poorly.
* TheUsualAdversaries -- Orks (usually). But also... Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids...
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans -- For the Greater Good!

* VaderBreath -- Because of the wildly differing techlevel of the setting, cybernetic lungs can work perfectly well and even better than the natural ones - or they may let the recipient do an unwilling Vader-impersonation, which is not practical when you're trying to be stealthy.
* VapourWear -- Dark Eldar Wyches practically wear ''anti''-clothing.
* VillainByDefault -- Upon close inspection, ''everyone''.
* ViolentGlaswegian -- Orks.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption -- No comment necessary.

* WalkingTank -- Dreadnoughts, in all flavors except the [[HauntedTechnology Wraithlord]] (a.k.a. the Eldar Dreadnought), as well as Defilers. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Soul Grinders]], considering [[EldritchAbomination their]] [[HauntedTechnology esoteric]] [[OrganicTechnology nature]], sit in a more gray area.
* WarForFunAndProfit -- The Orks, who go on interstellar sprees that leave billions dead because they're ''fun''. "Orks iz made for fightin' and winnin'."

* TheWarHasJustBegun -- Countering the Gotterdammerung of the Eldar and Imperium, increasingly heavy hints have been dropped that the Necrons are just beginning to wake up for their galaxy-wide omnicidal spree and the Tyranid Hive Fleets have barely started to turn their attention on our galaxy.
* WarIsHell -- In some instances, literally.
* WarriorMonk -- Sisters of Battle are the most blatant example. Numerous but a relative few Ecclesiarchs may fit into this trope. Space Marines, including the more devout Chaos Marines, have shades of this; many Loyalist chapters are a militant ''and'' monastic order, but the Warrior part has far greater emphasis for obvious reasons.
* WarriorPoet -- The Craftworld Eldar.
* WaveMotionGun -- Bombardment Guns, Nova Cannons, the appropriately-named Planet Killer, etc...
* WeAreAsMayflies -- Eldar are immortal; so, biologically, are Space Marines and Orks, though their entire lives being devoted to war somewhat gets in the way of that. Nobody's found ''anything'' that can stop the Necrons getting back up.

* WeAreEverywhere -- The Inquisition.
* WeAreTeamCannonFodder -- Kroot, Imperial Guard anytime they aren't the protagonists, Gretchin, ''everyone else'' for the Eldar.
* WeHaveReserves -- Basically the CatchPhrase of the Orks and Imperial Guard. Tyranids take this to such an extreme that their {{Mooks}} don't even ''have digestive systems'' - they are created, sent into battle for a few hours of frenzied combat, and then recycled.
* WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture -- Health care for military veterans and Imperial nobles is so good that just about anything short of having one's brain destroyed is survivable. Spectacular advances in surgery and [[{{Cyborg}} augmetic enhancements]] allow just about anyone to live for two hundred years or more, and that's assuming you don't splurge on a mechanical coffin that can preserve you for millennia. Of course, if you're ''not'' a veteran or noble, this trope is brutally, horribly averted.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture -- As an example, gigantic anti-ship missiles with onboard reactors and homing [=AIs=] are loaded with the back-breaking labour of thousands of deckhands. Using ropes. While being whipped.

* WellIntentionedExtremist -- The Tau. The "well intentioned" bit is what sets them apart.

* WellDoneSonGuy -- Several primarchs. Giving up on that was one motive to join the HorusHeresy.
* WetwareCPU -- Servitors, in all their various flavors.
* WeWillWearArmourInTheFuture -- Every army. Space Marines have the aforementioned PowerArmor, Tau and Eldar have full body covering plate armour, and the Imperial Guard have flak jackets (though unfortunately for the Guard, nearly every faction in the game has basic weaponry that can punch straight through their personal armor, which earns Guard flak such unkind nicknames as "t-shirts" and "cardboard vests").
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman -- Although, to be fair, pretty much every other race sees those not of its kind as worthless too.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer -- The Imperial Guard. When all you have is men and tanks...a ''lot'' of men and tanks... The Imperial Guard has been even referred to as 'The Hammer of the Emperor'.
* WhipItGood -- Has FetishFuel examples with Dark Eldar Agonisers and Sisters of Battle "Mistresses", and a rare non-fetishy example with Arco-Flagellants, which are [[NightmareFuel just plain horrible]].

* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl -- The Sisters of Battle often bleach their hair white, though whether they're actually ''pretty'' varies from artist to artist.
* TheWhiteHouse -- The Imperial Palace, which is said to cover most of Europe and to be visible ''from Mars''. How's that for BeyondTheImpossible? No really, that is BeyondTheImpossible, you couldn't make out continents from Mars, much less see anything that would set any one of them apart. Then again, why am I asking for realism from this setting?
* WhiteMagic -- Sisters of Battle Acts of Faith...maybe.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom -- Chaplains and their skull helms.
* WhosLaughingNow -- Everyone else's thoughts about Guard players when the Guard finally got a good codex.
* WhoYouGonnaCall -- The Sisters of Battle or the Inquisition, generally, including the Grey Knights and the Deathwatch. Calling might [[ShootTheDog get you killed]], but not calling will often have worse results.
* WithCatlikeTread -- "Recite the Litany of Stealth to reduce your chances of being heard."
* WithMyHandsTied -- Just about everyone, hence why more...exotic...measures are commonly employed.
* WingedHumanoid -- As well as troops in the Eldar, Dark Eldar and Chaos who use "jump packs" with mechanical wings, there are examples of humanoids with actual wings. The Primarch Sanguinius, known as "the Angel", had perfect white wings, and the [[AmazonBrigade Battle Sisters]]' Living Saint manifests them as part of being a saint. Of course, this being 40k, the Angel was a vampiric demigod who fought giant blood daemons.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity -- And with that insanity comes even more power!

* WithUsOrAgainstUs -- The Imperium, the Tau. The rest [[KillEmAll generally don't even bother to ask]], and even the Imperium [[FantasticRacism generally only bothers to ask if you're human]].
* WitchSpecies -- Eldar. Human psykers are also regularly referred to as "witches".
* AWizardDidIt -- The Warp did it. Or the Eldar. Or the C'tan Deceiver. Or Tzeentch.
* WolfMan -- Wulfen are basically werewolves...in space..with guns...in power armour.
* WolverineClaws -- Lightning Claws are this combined with PowerFist. Generally they are only distributed to Terminator Marines.
* WombLevel -- The interior of Tyranid hiveships.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen -- Life on board Imperial Fleet ships is this trope RecycledInSpace.
* TheWorfEffect -- New races or factions are commonly introduced in the background completely dominating Space Marines. One particularly memorable example has a Necron destroyer firing straight through a near-invulnerable Land Raider tank, accompanied by an AfterActionReport of tech-priests talking about the obscene amount of power required to do such a thing.
** TheWorfBarrage -- Often used as part of the above.
* WorldGoneMad -- Creeps into this territory at times - the universe is a CrapsackWorld taken to such a ludicrous extent that one sometimes wonders if the setting hasn't well and truly lost its marbles.
* WorldHalfEmpty -- Played straight with the Imperium, which struggles to maintain its slowly slipping grasp on galactic supremacy and survival, and the Craftworld Eldar, who are struggling to survive the galaxy. The Tau appear to avert this trope, but there are hints that things aren't going so smoothly. Averted by everyone else, where the sky is the limit.
* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed -- "World" meaning ''the entire galaxy''. Or just any world chosen at random.
* WorldOfHam -- [[DawnOfWar INDEED!]]

* WorldOfBadass -- If there is indeed only war, it would make only the {{Badass}} survive. [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou Well, it's generally 'survive for a bit longer...']]
* WretchedHive -- The [[{{Necromunda}} "Underhive"]] in hive cities ''always'' qualifies - sometimes the entire arcology, with its population of billions.

* XanatosRoulette -- Everything in the galaxy, as played by Tzeentch (who rigs the game), the Deceiver (who rigs the players), the Emperor (who knows when to call in the cops), and the Eldar Laughing God ([[{{Metaphorgotten}} who keeps wandering off the floor to visit the buffet and watch the stage show]]).

* XtremeKoolLetterz -- The Orks' FunetikAksent is written with these. Other examples, such as Dark Eldar Wyches, feature occasionally.

* YouAreNotReady -- Common Eldar sentiment to humans. The most common reply is a bolt shell to the face.
* YouHaveFailedMe -- Regularly used by Chaos, Orks and Imperial Commissars.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness -- Gleefully employed by followers of Chaos and the Dark Eldar.
* YourHeadASplode -- When a psychic MindRape is a bit too subtle. Ork Weirdboyz even used to have a power called "'Eadbang", which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what it sounds like.]] An 'Eadbang is also how the Orks refer to what happens when a Weirdboy suffers Perils of the Warp. Just guess what happens...
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt -- The Ork hierarchy tends to work this way, ditto the Dark Eldar and Chaos: if you succeed in killing the previous Warboss/Archite/Lord, the former officeholder clearly didn't deserve the job.

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld -- The Squats had ironclad airships.
* ZergRush -- Tyranids - unsurprisingly, as the ''Zerg themselves'' were based on them. A lot of "horde" armies, such as Orks and Imperial Guard, employ this one as well. The Imperial Guard is probably the single most emblematic example; as the largest fighting force around, numbering in the ''billions'', you get ''so many'' of them.

* ZombieApocalypse -- After occasionally menacing the depths of {{Necromunda}}, plague zombies cropped up in force during the 13th Black Crusade, courtesy of Nurgle. ''DarkHeresy'' introduces many more new and exciting ways for characters to find themselves up to their eyeballs in shambling dead.

[[/folder]]

* TheWhiteHouse -- The Imperial Palace, which is said to cover most of Europe and to be visible ''from Mars''.

** The Space Marines favour [[ReallyBigGun bolt weapons]] and [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]].

* ReallyBigGun -- Humongous and dreadfully lethal pistols abound, most notably the Imperial bolt pistol, which fires small armour-piercing rocket grenades.

* WhatMeasureIsANonSuper -- Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle, and Imperial Citizens that isn't Space Marines, Abhumans, Adeptus Mechanicus, Psykers, Custodes, and most Chaos followers

** Necrons: Ancient undead metal constructs powered by the souls of long-dead aliens that hate all living things. In thrall to gods (and actual [[PhysicalGod physical ones]] by that) that wish to consume all life. Ridiculously advanced technology, [[ImplacableMan almost impossible to kill]], [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] down to the last bacterium.

* UltimateEvil -- The Emperor, the Chaos Gods, and the C'tan all get this treatment to varying degrees.

* AWizardDidIt -- The Warp did it. Or the Eldar. Or the C'tan. Or Tzeentch.

* ShootTheDog -- Happens very, very often in the Imperium. One of a commissar's duties is to maintain unit cohesion and discipline - by execution, if necessary. Discovered psykers are usually killed to stop them getting daemon-possessed and destroying worlds, fed to the Astronomicon to preserve it and the Emperor, or put through brutal conditioning to serve the Imperium as "sanctioned" psykers. And, if that weren't bad enough, in extreme catastrophes ''planets'' are subjected to Exterminatus in order to prevent the taint from spreading and put the inhabitants out of their misery. To highlight how monumentally screwed up this galaxy is, people are actually ''awarded medals'' for such acts.

* ShouldersOfDoom -- Space Marine armour takes this to ridiculous heights...and widths.
** Not just SpaceMarines. If you look at the GamesWorkshop site, "Shoulder Pads" is an entire category of modeling bits, along with scenery and weapons.

* TrainingFromHell -- Pretty much the only training there is. The only way they can top it is by having people trained ''[[BeyondTheImpossible inside]]'' [[BeyondTheImpossible the universe's hell]].

* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness -- Generally sits at the far serious end. Most of the time, the extreme '''''''{{GRIM DARK}}NESS''''''' of the setting is played deadly straight, taking the painful, horrific hopelessness of the setting almost - but not quite - to the point of parody. At other times, particularly in the CiaphasCain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) novels and the GaidenGame Gorkamorka, the brutality, insanity and genocide are broken up by occasional humour and silliness... albeit humour so dark light cannot escape its surface.

* StandardRedshirtProcedure -- Some Imperial Guard regiments.

** The Ultramarines are a chapter of Space Marines who wear blue armor. [[spoiler: Ultramarine is a shade of blue.]]

** One of the elite fighting forces in the imperial guard are know as the [[WorldWarOne storm troopers]], and most [[Starwars wear fully enclosing gas masked helmets]]

** The Imperial Guards are known as [[{{StarWars}}Imperial Stormtroopers.]]
*** Actually, only a very small elite special forces part of the Imperial Guard are called Stormtroopers.

** Loken of the Space Wolves, in keeping with being an analog for the Norse god of trickery, has this as an actual battle plan. He has a specialized stasis bomb on his wargear, rigged to detonate if he dies. As a result, who ever finally slays him will be frozen forever in undying stasis with Loken's laughing face to look at for eternity.